Just playing beautiful morning, by machine head, and actually trying to play it on time, my teacher asked what scale do they use. I found that they actually use C# over a C root note, which i find surprising even the progression used on the, spme would call, locrian mode. Amazing and strange. Do you remember other songs using this kind of thing?

I think we're all agreed that in western music modes aren't used an awful lot and that boils down to simple common sense and practicality - because there's an easier and more flexible way of describing music. And even if you are using modes you're going to struggle to get what's generally regarded as a pleasing or desirable sound out of the Locrian - again in the context of western music as a whole.

Despite that it always amuses me how some people seem to view this as some kind of challenge or treasure hunt..."Well yes I'm moving frm Mixolydian through to Lydian", "Look! Look! I've found the Locrian...there it is!!"

It's like the music equivalent of UFOs, some people just seem so utterly desperate to see these mysterious "things" they grab on to the smallest, most intangible bit of "evidence" that points to their existence.

Actually i have no problem understanding that this is not modal and that is simply C# major scale over C key (assuming that's the case in this song, otherwise imagine we're playing that).
What i don't understand is what the hell are modes supposed to mean then?
LOL!.

Actually i have no problem understanding that this is not modal and that is simply C# major scale over C key (assuming that's the case in this song, otherwise imagine we're playing that).
What i don't understand is what the hell are modes supposed to mean then?
LOL!.

Modes are just scales played off of different degrees of the major scale. (ie; an E Phrygian mode is playing from E to E using the notes in the diatonic C Major scale) They were used extensively in pre-Renaissance music, and kind of acted as their own 'keys' back then. Gregorian chants are also a good example on the usage of modes.

Modes are just scales played off of different degrees of the major scale. (ie; an E Phrygian mode is playing from E to E using the notes in the diatonic C Major scale) They were used extensively in pre-Renaissance music, and kind of acted as their own 'keys' back then. Gregorian chants are also a good example on the usage of modes.

At least from my understanding, which is probably flawed at best.

No, modes aren't just scales starting on different notes of the major scale.

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^^The above is a CrypticMetaphor^^

"To know the truth of history is to realize its ultimate myth and its inevitable ambiguity."

Modal music is an older system of music. It was pretty limiting, and so the tonal system developed and replaced it. Modes require a drone or a 2 or 3 chord vamp (short chord progression) to establish themselves and are very strict. Whether or not you are playing modes depends completely on your harmony, not what scale your melody is using.
The names of modes have been used by guitarists as a way of organizing the fretboard, but they have been confused as to what playing a mode really is. If you're in the key of C, playing the C major scale starting on E doesn't do anything. You're playing in the key of C regardless because that's what the harmony dictates. You can play any note you want and still be in the key of C. That's the flexibility of the tonal system.
Jazz also uses the names of modes as a way of organizing accidentals, similar to what guitarists do, but most of the time they aren't playing modes.

__________________

^^The above is a CrypticMetaphor^^

"To know the truth of history is to realize its ultimate myth and its inevitable ambiguity."

Modal music is an older system of music. It was pretty limiting, and so the tonal system developed and replaced it. Modes require a drone or a 2 or 3 chord vamp (short chord progression) to establish themselves and are very strict. Whether or not you are playing modes depends completely on your harmony, not what scale your melody is using.
The names of modes have been used by guitarists as a way of organizing the fretboard, but they have been confused as to what playing a mode really is. If you're in the key of C, playing the C major scale starting on E doesn't do anything. You're playing in the key of C regardless because that's what the harmony dictates. You can play any note you want and still be in the key of C. That's the flexibility of the tonal system.
Jazz also uses the names of modes as a way of organizing accidentals, similar to what guitarists do, but most of the time they aren't playing modes.

Sounds rather like phrygian with the b5 as a passing tone rather as a fifth. They are also playing the perfect 5th in the (power) chords. If you want something in locrian, hear army of me by bjórk (im pretty sure).

Also, for the modal talk, a song can indeed be in a mode. Take for example "so what" by miles davis. The melodies is in d dorian and the chords are Em11 to Dm11, the melodies is in d dorian, and it does resolve to d. So it is indeed in D dorian. It dosent resolve at all to C major or A minor.